top of page

  Interview with Jacquelyn Eubanks

Great news, everyone! For the next author interview, Juniel was able to contact the award-winning, best selling author, Jacquelyn Eubanks! Jacquelyn Eubanks is a talented author who wrote the series, The Last Summer, which was actually a book that Missiterati.com featured as an Editor's Picks. It was an honor to have her on the LMN website!

 

Juniel: The Last Summer takes place in Georgia. Why did you end up picking Georgia as the setting of the story?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: I’ve always loved the Southeastern United States, ever since I took a road trip to South Carolina when I was eleven. My family and I drove through the Appalachian Mountains and watched the sun rise – it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Since then, I’d always felt my heart being called to Georgia for some reason. I plan to move there when I graduate college.

 

Juniel: Being an author, writing is obviously your passion. When and how did you find this passion?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: I’ve been writing – or at least telling stories – for literally my entire life. Before I even learned how to write, I would draw scribbles on paper and read them as if they were the words to a story. I had to have been about two or three then. Ever since, I’ve been filling up notebooks and Word Documents with my well of literary fabrications. It’s an innate skill, as natural as breathing to me.

 

Juniel: In sequels, authors explain the basic situation and ideas that were introduced in the previous books. Do you have any advice how to do this while keeping the story flowing?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: There is always a proper time to re-introduce characters or events from your first book into your second book. What I often do is, when I find myself referencing a character/situation from the first book in the second, I explain briefly the significance of the person/event. The trick is to act like your readers have never read the first book, so you want to make sure they understand your second book without needing to read the first through concise explanations (almost like a quick backstory).

 

Juniel: Why did you decide to self-publish your series?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: Mainly because my parents were afraid that I wouldn’t have all of the rights to my book and/or be exploited. I personally like the benefit of being able to choose the cover and interior formatting for my book, rather than have a publisher call the shots. However, now I’m in the process of acquiring a literary agent to attempt publishing with a big-name publishing house.

 

Juniel: There are situations where characters’ personalities start to slowly change unintentionally throughout the story. Has this happened to you? If so, how did you handle this?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: I don’t really have a problem with characters’ personalities changing unintentionally (or maybe this does happen, I just don’t realize it). Generally, I feel that if my characters change throughout the book, it’s a natural occurrence that can be good because it’s more realistic – it makes them dynamic, memorable, and well-developed. However, sometimes I find that in my first draft of a novel I’ve failed to portray a character exactly as I wanted to. For example, in the first draft of The Last Time, Charley’s mother was mostly a tyrant with not a lot of depth or reasoning behind her constantly agitated behavior. In order to make her more believable and human, I made her motives more obvious and toned down her spouts of anger in the second draft. This allowed the audience to see her as a real mother, not a screaming lunatic.

 

Juniel: How much do you write every week?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: I write every day or at least every other day, whether it is journal entries, blog posts, or actual parts of my novel. Just getting in a little bit of writing each day is good practice because you’ll continue to improve, rather than neglect, your talent.

 

Juniel: Being sixteen, you’re still in high school. Do you have any advice how to balance education and writing?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks:To be honest, I’m not the best at balancing school and writing. In fact, during the school year is when I get my least amount of novel-writing done. Typically, I rely on summers, weekends, snow days, spring break, Christmas break, and other days off from school to do my writing. I rarely, if ever, write my novels on school nights (because I never have time; there’s so much homework to be done).

 

Juniel: Why did you decide to write a series over a novel?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: Truthfully, it’s because I knew that Charley’s story was too long to fit into one book. When I first came up with the idea for The Last Summer, it was supposed to be a two-part novel in one book. But then I realized that that would be too long of a book and people would likely lose interest, and besides, there needed to be more character development and conflict in the plot if my readers were ever going to be fully engaged. It all comes down to this: I knew that Charley had a story worth telling. And the best way to tell it was through a series, because only a series could capture the immense amount of changes and obstacles Charley has to go through. To shove it all into one book would not do her story justice.

 

Juniel: How many times do you think The Last Summer was edited before being published? Do you have anything to tell your Miss Literati fellows about editing?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: It was probably edited about four or five times, maybe more. Editing is truly the most important part of book writing. Your story is never perfect with the first draft, and only through numerous rounds of editing can you polish your book to its perfection. Editing is so much more than grammar and spelling – it’s about the plot, the setting, the characters, the conflicts, your syntax, making sense of everything you’ve written so your readers understand. Never neglect editing; it will literally save your book.

 

Juniel: When is the third book in The Last Summer series, The Last Chance, going to be published?

 

Jacquelyn Eubanks: The goal is to publish it in August or September of 2014, but life has a way of changing your plans drastically. I’m not finished with the book yet – I’m only half way through – but I have a clear end in sight, and simply need time to sit down and finish it straight through without interruptions. Then it'll likely go through two rounds of editing (which typically takes a month and a half), and finally be ready to either get self-published (the quick way) or sent to a publishing house (and who knows how long that will take to get published?).

 

I’d love to invite all Miss Lits to check out my blog, www.JacquelynEubanks.com. Also, they should like The Last Summer page on Facebook to keep updated on all of my author events and book happenings (https://www.facebook.com/TheLastSummerSeries) or follow me on Twitter (@The_Last_Summer). And for anyone who has read my books, feel free to post reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

 

I personally suggest that if you want to stay connected, you subscribe to her website with your email and follow her on Twitter. I've found these two the fastest way to get news about The Last Summer series. So check her out on Facebook, Twitter, her website, and check out her books on amazon and buy a copy if you're interested. :)

 

Interview by Juniel

 

Check out Jacquelyn Eubank's

website HERE!!!

Get The Last Summer on Amazon HERE!

Get The Last Time on Amazon HERE!

Like her on Facebook HERE!

 

bottom of page